Kanye West claims anti-Semitic comments were meant as ‘ignorant compliment’

We tried to warn him but Kanye West didn’t listen and now the hyperbolic rapper may have finally gone too far.

The “Mercy” artist got himself into some racial hot water last month when he made reference to Jewish stereotypes during an interview on New York radio station Power 105.1 FM.

“Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people,” West said on Power’s The Breakfast Club, in reference to Barack Obama.

Unsurprisingly, the statement raised the ire of the Anti-Defamation League, who were quick to denounce West’s implications: “If the comments are true as reported, this is classic anti-Semitism,” national director Abraham H. Foxman said in a statement. “There it goes again, the age-old canard that Jews are all-powerful and control the levers of power in government.”

“As a celebrity with a wide following, Kanye West should know better,” Foxman added.

Nearly two weeks later, West has finally responded, apologizing in classic Kanye fashion.

Speaking with Chicago radio station B96, the ever outspoken West addressed the issue when asked if he regrets saying anything. “I thought that I wasn’t giving a compliment, but if anything, it came off more ignorant,” he claimed about the comparison. West also added that he wishes to retract the statement, which he says was meant as an “ignorant compliment.”

And if he had simply ended his apology there that would have been all well and good but, Kanye being Kanye, he quickly added insult to injury — comparing the myth of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to a rather different stereotype.

“I don’t know how being told that you have money is an insult,” West posed. “That would be like if somebody complimented black guys and said, ‘All black guys got big penises.’ You don’t want to be the black guy that raises your hand, like, ‘That’s not true. I got proof.'”